Strawberry
by kyotoagnes
Summary: Things are tough enough for a cop in Midgar without having to deal with the Turks. Pre-Game


Title: Strawberry

Author: Kyotoagnes

Pairing: None really. Reno, OC

Rating: T

Warnings: Blood, excessive amounts of it.

Word Count: 3,652

Final Fantasy VII and Reno belong to Square Enix Holdings Co. Ltd. Long may they continue to put out more pretty boys for me to use in a purely not for profit way of course.

**Strawberry**

Xiao was halfway into his office when he smelled the blood and saw the man. He paused in the doorway and simply stared at the red haired man sitting on the floor handcuffed to his desks leg leaving a large puddle of blood on an all ready battered linoleum floor. The man slowly turned his head and wiggled a cuffed hand in a mocking wave "Yo". Xiao rolled his eyes and pushed the door open further so he could see closer, the man's pale skin was dotted and splashed with scarlet except in places where he'd obvious scrubbed it off and aquamarine eyes were remarkably cheerful even as they inspected Xiao in return.

"Is any of that yours?" Xiao asked though judging from the man's clear eyes and focus he probably wasn't too injured.

"Nope" The man shook his head slightly his hair moving slightly though it too was obviously matted down with blood. Xiao held up a finger and turned from the door. "One moment". The sound of a put upon sigh echoed down the corridor and followed him down to the Sergeants desk.

Xiao put on his best obnoxious smile because he damn well knew Sergeant Koch was responsible for that mess in his office and Xiao could be just as passive aggressive as the rest of the assholes at the Precinct even more so on a morning such as this.

"Sergeant Koch why is there a bloody man handcuffed to the desk in my office?" He was quite proud of the calmness of his voice, getting upset would give the idiots that bedeviled him too much satisfaction. Sergeant Koch as per his standard operating procedure didn't even look at him.

"Ain't a man, Xiao, he's a Turk and he's in your office because the last time he was in lock up he started a riot. " Sergeant Koch waved a file at him still not looking up. "'Sides the Captain wants you to look at what we "detained" the bastard for and see if you think he's the bugger behind some of your cold cases and we can clear them as unsolvable seein' as how we can't even arrest the SOB"

Xiao politely waited for the hand to stop moving and then removed the file, he wasn't a child trying to get at a kept away toy and the Sergeant had better get that through his head. Of course if he was unable to restrain his usual interrogation style he'd probably be killed by the Turk and then the Sergeant wouldn't have to worry about it. As he headed towards the mens locker room Xiao decided that was exactly why the Turk had been inflicted on him in the first place. Homicide by Turk was actually quite common in Midgar he was given to understand. He would have to see if he could rise to the occasion or at least survive it.

The man was still on the floor although the look he shot Xiao when he pushed the door open was slightly irritated. Xiao turned on the lights which really made the visual situation even worse. With the lights on he could see the blue of the suit jacket and pants. Colors that marked the man even more distinctively than his hair in Midgar the shadowed capitol city of the Shin-Ra Power Company. But the blue was darkening to black and eyeing his hair Xiao figured that it was probably an even brighter red when not doused with dried blood. Xiao walked past him and set the file on the desk then crouched down thankful he still had his gloves on and undid the cuffs. The man was a Turk he could have gotten out of them at any time, Xiao could see no advantage to leaving him cuffed to the desk for the Gods Sake. Xiao dropped the towels in the man's lap and another two over the chair by the desk.

"Clean up as best as you can and have a seat"

He was going to steadfastly ignore the pool of blood on the floor for now though the mess made his hackles go up. For someone who had been seated on a floor for several hours the Turk rose with a quick grace and not even a grimace. He was also efficient as he scrubbed the blood from his hair, face and hands. Xiao turned away so that he didn't have to see the flakes of dried blood the man was busily shedding Everywhere! Xiao peeled off his gloves and dropped them in the garbage can and went to hang up his coat. He jerked slightly when the man whistled low at the sight of his hair dropping down his back to his waist.

" Long hair and a full dress uniform what did I do to merit you?" The tone was more amused than it was salacious and Xiao decided for both their sakes he'd ignore the undertone.

"There will be a funeral later today for a very good policewoman who was shot by a gang of bank robbers on her lunch break of all things, Amanda would be mortified if she wasn't dead." Xiao watched the man literally flop into the chair and just knew, towels aside, he'd have to replace it. He was gratified to see the Turk had flung the towels down on the mess on the floor at least.

" As for meriting me, well we haven't had our chat yet, I rather suspect the Sergeant wants to see if you'll kill me, I'm not known for my tact." Best to warn the man right off. Since he was a Turk, Xiao couldn't even arrest him so this wouldn't really be an official interrogation any way he reminded himself of that even as he pulled out his keys to unlock his desk door. The reek of of old blood was driving him nuts.

The red head snorted under his breath and yawned as he leaned back further in his chair.

" Me neither"

Xiao decided, as he thought of riots in lockup, that the man was a master of understatement and pulled a cigarette with a pale red band on it out of his cigarette case. The Turk watched him wistfully as he lit it until the scent of it reached him then he gagged loudly.

" Strawberry! You're smoking strawberry flavored cigarettes what kind of weirdo are you." The tone was more humorous than mocking like before.

Xiao eyed the bloody face with its razor sharp cheekbones painted into shadowed planes by blood spatter and for once forebear comment.

"It's all about complements you see, Mr. ?" He tilted his head at the man.

"Reno, no Mr." Reno the Turk tilted his head back in return in a remarkably courteous motion that many in Midgar just didn't use. It was a more Wutai formality and Xiao wondered where he had learned it.

"Well Reno I am Xiao Linghu." Xiao tilted his head back at Reno imitating the man's own Wutai like courtesy.

" It's all about complements you see,Reno. This brand of cigarettes comes in five flavors, strawberry, cherry, grape, vanilla and cinnamon. Strawberry goes well with the scent of blood, Cherry with cordite and explosives, Grape for everyday things. Vanilla is for grief and no doubt I'll go through a few at the funeral today." Xiao started to relax as the taste and odor of strawberry started to block the scent of blood and Reno went quiet for a moment. Then he stirred and rested a blood coated sleeve carefully on the towel on the chair arm.

"Did you catch your cop killers? The ones who offed your lady?" The question was said in the same tone as before and Xiao wondered if Reno used that particular tone of voice even when he was killing someone and decided he probably did. For a moment Xiao wished he had the handcuffs back but realized that would do little damn good.

"Two are still missing but we'll catch up with them. Amanda was a good woman and well liked". Xiao flipped open the file on his desk and looked down the first page. The problem with him and the things he feared was the fact that he felt compelled to confront them and Reno definitely made him nervous.

" Well Reno shall we get on with it? Do you want to dispense with the usual bureaucracy and simply talk about what happened tonight?" The moment he said it Xiao knew that wasn't going to happen and he waved a hand before Reno could even open his mouth.

"Never mind, bureaucracy is what Midgar does best, well that and recreational homicide if my files are any indication. Lets see, victim was " Xiao picked up the the one page record filled front and back, "busy if not particularly bright good Gods who robs the same store three times?" Silly question really in this Sector where one could practically tell the day of the week by which store had been robbed. He set aside the rap sheet and picked up the first of the photos of the crime scene, three pictures, the minute they'd figured out he was a Turk the enthusiasm had pretty much gone out of them obviously. He was aware Reno had leaned forward slightly and those eyes were on his face but he wasn't really paying attention. Seth was on duty last night, the man took very good crime scene photos and had an eye for what was relevant which was good because the first thing one saw was the blood.

"Five liters in a body and the minute someone starts whacking it turns into fifty, at least you, sorry, the unknown perpetrator didn't aim for the head first ." Xiao turned the photo upside down and focused past the blood which really wasn't that hard once you started looking at the broken bones and mess. Open fractures in both legs, upper and lower bones. That was hard to do actually. He dropped the first photo in favor of the next close up one on the lower torso.

"Rather decent upper body strength in unknown perpetrator, the blows are fairly consistent all the way through most people don't realize how much actual work goes into beating a man to death. " The second photo fluttered back to the desk as he moved to the third photo lost in the images oblivious to the man across from him muttering softly to himself almost.

" Not tidy but then I'm willing to bet the orders emphasized untidy, making a point and so on. All in all very efficient, quite workman like." Xiao looked up to find Reno staring at him mouth slightly open.

"Oh sorry unknown perpetrator's work was quite technically proficient. But the whole thing lacks inspiration. Its just work, well done work but work still the same." Xiao gathered up the photos into a neat pile and blinked as Reno began to laugh.

"They're right, you don't have no tact. So how'd you figure the unknown perpetrator was just doing work, not inspired?"

Xiao half admired Reno's ability to put verbal quotation marks in his voice as he put out his cigarette and reached for his keys.

"I see patterns in things sometimes. Thats why they tend to tolerate my violation of the dress code and the fact that I'm from Wutai. Well that and my extraordinary ability to show up for work on time and sober for long periods of time." He unlocked the desk drawer, his fingers finding the file in the drawer without his even looking. It was very large, depressingly so. He pulled out the first photo inside and slid across the desk for Reno to look at.

"That is inspired, not pleasant but in its way a kind of art, it has a passion to it. Its not work to this killer."

Reno made a face and Xiao agreed with him, The mess in the picture was just as bloody but there was no spatter, symbol after symbol had been scrawled across the walls and floor. The body had no broken bones was perfectly intact unlike Reno's victim but all the same Xiao found himself wishing for Reno's crime scene pictures even as Reno slid the photo back across the desk to him.

"Thats the difference this man really enjoys his work, while I'm sure our unknown perpetrator takes pride in his job and may even enjoy it now and then I doubt he feels what this particular killer does."

Reno may have been about to answer but then the Sergeant without a by your leave stuck his head into the office.

"His boss is here for him." He glared at Reno and slammed the door. Xiao sighed and put away his file crushing out the remains of his cigarette. He slid the three photos from Reno's or rather the unknown perpetrator's crime scene across the desk to him.

"You might as well take them it will save you the trouble of vanishing them." Reno smirked and picked up the towels well soaked from the floor . Headed for the door, he stopped in the doorway and looked back smirk twisting to slightly obscene with just a twitch of his lips.

" So Xiao, whats cinnamon for?"

Xiao fought down or at least tried to the blush that crawled over him, it was just cigarettes for the Gods sake.

"None of your business Reno, now go on."

Smirk still in place Reno wiggled his fingers at him again, turned and was gone. Xiao rose to his feet and followed after him curious as to who precisely would be trying to ride herd on the Turk. He'd just stepped into the corridor when Reno reached the Sergeants desk and he watched as Reno dropped the bloody towels and handcuffs square in the middle of it. The Sergeant howled and Reno kept going laughing at the top of his lungs. He slapped the shoulder of a very large man in a blue suit holding the door open and was gone. Xiao very quietly turned and went back into office, shutting the door quite firmly so he could laugh his head off in a messy, bloody office in peace.

Reno peered into Midgar's quasi gloom and scratched at an itchy piece of matted hair. All in all, he decided, it was going to be a good day. Even though Rude was looming behind him radiating disapproval at the towel trick and Tseng at the bottom of the stairs radiating, well, Tseng. He threw himself into the back seat of the car manfully ignoring the plastic laid down on the seat, Tseng could be so anal about the upholstery.

"Well nice to see you are still in one piece what about the precinct?" Tseng queried as Rude climbed into the driver's seat. Rude snorted and Reno ignored that to, the chat with Xiao had left him in a good mood.

" Its fine the fuckers wouldn't put me in lockup but they gave me a nice policeman to play with." Reno decided not to mention the whole handcuffed to the desk incident he'd kind of deserved that for the riot thing last time. Tseng twisted slightly in his seat and arched an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah the bugs are in place, everything checks out and their response time sucks as usual, it took them ten minutes to get the targets place, I had time for a cigarette before they showed up to arrest me." On the whole Reno couldn't see why he had to be arrested to plant bugs in the damn precinct but Tseng had figured kill two birds with one stone or rather baton, kill the target for stealing from the wrong people and check in on Precinct 12. Messy night but not boring. He thought of Xiao's comments about inspiration, and work...no definitely not boring. Tseng glanced back again and frowned.

"Reno you didn't break the policeman did you?" A valid question actually since anyone who pissed him off was prone to accidents, usually non fatal, but always painful, why arrange accidents if they weren't, really.

"Nah, he was real nice gave me a job critique with visual illustrations, says I'm efficient." He left off the whole bit about it being workman like because Rude would tease him about it. But the the pretty little thing had been right. His whole attitude about the job had been "meh", his heart hadn't been in it. Xiao was right when it came to stuff like that he just wasn't inspired. You learned new things every night he supposed snatching his cigarettes from Tseng. As he lit one he thought of those pansy strawberry cigarettes and smiled as an idea came to him. Rude glanced back at him in the mirror and twitched reflexively at the sight.

"Say boss," Reno leaned forward to look at Tseng, puppy dog eyes never worked on Tseng but let me kill something eyes did. "I think we ought to give my policeman a thank you gift and maybe play nice with the department at the same time." Tseng didn't shove him back into the back so he felt free to elaborate. "Its like this ..."

Xiao opened the door to his office the next day with a wariness he didn't usually have. But there was no Turk, the floor was clean and a slightly battered new chair was in front of his desk. Satisfaction was no bloody aftermath really. He sat down, lit up a grape cigarette and was paging through the Junon serial murder file when there was a knock and the Captain came in. Xiao braced himself for a battle over trying pawn off cold case files on the Turks.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you sir but I did interview Reno and have a look at his current" he tried to find a word because he was relatively certain using the word 'work' would piss the Captain off.

"Never mind Xiao, I didn't figure it would work but I did want you to meet the man, crazy isn't he? Where the Turks find them?" The Captain sat in the chair across from Xiao not nearly as gracefully as Reno and glared at the desk as if it personally had committed a crime.

"Crazy no, scary yes, its not the capacity for violence although I'd say he has a very large capacity, truckload sized even. Its the fact that he quite cheerfully does it when given an order." Xiao could tell from the look on the Captain's face he didn't quite understand why that scared Xiao and didn't give a damn really either.

"Quite honestly Captain he wasn't responsible for any of the cold cases, oh he has the ability and the willingness but he didn't do any of them." Any cases Reno was responsible for would have long since vanished into the amorphous label of Turk related, don't even think about looking into this.

The Captain really didn't seem ready to fight about it which made Xiao wonder why the man had set foot in his office.

"They found those two missing gang members that killed Amanda this morning. Beaten to death care to venture as to the weapon?" Again the Captain didn't seem too angry, Xiao put out his cigarette and folded his hands over the Junon file.

"No sir but I'd guess it was done very efficiently." He wondered if the Captain thought he'd struck a deal with the Turk, wondered if it mattered. The Captain simply got up and looked at him, honestly looked at him none of the sideways glances or blank stares he usually got.

"Be careful Xiao, where Turks are involved there is a price for everything even gifts you don't ask for." Then he was gone. Xiao closed the Junon file. The Captain was right of course but also oblivious to the other patterns. The Turks were dangerous, no correction he hadn't met any others except Reno the others might be different. Reno was dangerous because he was loyal, not because he'd been trained and was paid to kill. He'd met professional killers before, men who killed for money, but he would bet every cigarette he had Reno didn't give a damn about the money. No,Reno gave a damn about someone or someones and when the order came down even if his heart wasn't in it he did it. His madness had a star in the center, one that exerted an inescapable gravity on him. Come anything and anyone else, he would continue that orbit. Crazy was one thing but loyal was something else entirely. Reno wasn't one of his inspired ones he was in some ways far scarier. But there was something to be said for loyal and efficient especially when it thanked you for simple courtesies rendered and overlooked a distinct lack of tact. Xiao opened his desk drawer and pulled out a cigarette with a dark red band, it wasn't one he smoked a lot, his job rarely gave him the opportunity. He took in that first drag of cinnamon and looked at the doorway

"Cinnamon is satisfaction Reno." He whispered to a ghost with smirk and bloody hands.

End


End file.
